Military Matters: Fort Drum Helps Soldiers File Tax Returns

If you're a Fort Drum soldier, family member, or retiree, you can head to the Fort Drum Tax Assistance Center.

The center is now booking appointments one week in advance for free tax filing services.

"So for a single soldier that should save $150 and a married soldier approximately $300," said Captain Steven Brady, tax center officer in charge.

Filing taxes can be especially challenging for military families due to frequent moves and deployments.

Those are the kind of issues that the tax center specializes in.

"These soldiers are trained up, great bunch of guys, great bunch of girls, they know those questions to ask," said Brady.

Those soldiers are all IRS trained and certified.

"We do a week of in-house training that's followed by a week of IRS and New York state training and then we come back and take what we learned from the IRS and state and we train for another week," said Brady.

And the tax center soldiers come from all different branches of the Army.

"They come from all walks of life. We have everyone from infantryman, to mortarmen, finance people, medics, military police, military intelligence. They come from all across the installation from any unit," said Brady.

Appointments can be made one week in advance by calling 315-772-6727.

The center is open Monday through Friday, 8 am until 8 pm, and on Saturdays from 9 am until 1 pm.

The goal is to make filing a return a little less taxing for soldiers and their families.